Beating IU was next chapter in 'perfect story' of Purdue's 2000 Rose Bowl season

Editor's note: This story is the sixth in a series related to Purdue's 2000 football season.

A surprising loss at Michigan State on Nov. 11, 2000, dampened the spirits of a ninth-ranked Purdue football team expecting to leave East Lansing Rose Bowl bound.

A lackluster showing against the Spartans changed it all.

Or so they thought.

While the Boilermakers dropped a dud, 12th-ranked Northwestern simultaneously had its own struggles at Iowa, losing 27-17 to a 2-8 Hawkeyes team.

That offset Purdue's loss, meaning all the Boilermakers had to do was beat Indiana under the lights at Ross-Ade Stadium and they'd be be playing in Pasadena on New Year's Day.

The way it played out, Nov. 18, 2000, became one of the biggest dates in Purdue football history.

"It was a perfect, cold, fall night. It was a storybook ending to that regular season," defensive tackle Craig Terrill said. "Ross-Ade came alive."

"If you could predict and write the perfect story, it would be that," defensive end Akin Ayodele said. "To be at home. To win a championship in front of your crowd at night. We did lose to Michigan State and Penn State all for it to come down to the last game against your arch nemesis."

"We knew we were going to beat Indiana," defensive ends coach Gary Emanuel said. "We knew we weren’t going to lose with a chance to go to the Rose Bowl against Indiana at home."

The visiting Hoosiers, led by quarterback Antwaan Randle El, threatened to strike first. Randle El had runs of 18 and 14 yards on Indiana's second drive. Freshman linebacker Gilbert Gardner hit Randle El, running an option to the right, in the backfield at the 23-yard line. Gardner's hit jarred the ball loose. Ayodele fell on it to force the turnover, what would become a theme for the night.

On the ensuing play, Drew Brees escaped a sack and completed a pass to Donald Winston, who spun out of a tackle attempt and gained 29 yards. Brees scrambled for 19 more yards on the next play, sparking a 74-yard drive. Montrell Lowe capped it, following pulling guard Gene Mruczkowski on a toss left for a 12-yard touchdown.

Purdue's offensive line paving the way for Lowe would be another of the night's themes.

Purdue's drive got the ball rolling. The Boilermakers scored again on their next drive on Brees' 13-yard pass to tight end Tim Stratton. Travis Dorsch squib kicked. Tim Upshur delivered a quick hit, but the short kick provided Indiana good field position at its own 39.

"I don't care if we were at 0 (wins)," Upshur said. "We're going to that game with the intent to win, and it is a true rivalry. Yeah, we hated those guys."

The short field was the early break the Hoosiers needed, scoring six plays later to cut Purdue's lead to 13-7 before a near disaster on the ensuing kickoff.

Indiana lofted a short kick that was nearly botched by the up man.

"There was a kid who was coming right at me and I backed up. I was never supposed to back up because I had Vinny Sutherland behind me," fullback Jacob Rowe said. "You want Vinny with the ball. Any play, give Vinny the ball. I took one or two steps back and Vinny is coming full speed behind me and hit me, dropped the ball and we recovered it. But if Vinny caught it going full speed, it probably would’ve been a touchdown."

Crisis averted and Purdue took a 20-7 lead into halftime after Brees' 2-yard run on Purdue's final first half drive. Lowe scored early in the second half. Purdue's strong defensive effort against the electric Randle El continued when freshman safety Stuart Schweigert plucked a deep pass into the end zone with his left hand, offsetting one Brees threw in the end zone during the first half.

"They would run this play, they ran the option, so they would run where it looks like an option and (Randle El) steps back and he’d throw it," Shweigert said. "(Defensive backs coach) Kenny Greene said whatever side they ran the option to, check the backside tackle. If the backside tackle is blocking down, it's the option. … My first interception was because if you leave that front side it looks like a run, but you check the back side and that was a pass. My first interception that game was all because of our coaches. They prepared us for that game really well."

With Purdue leading 27-7, the Boilermakers leaned on their five future NFL offensive linemen, handing to Lowe 10 times on an 11-play, 80-yard touchdown drive.

"We were having our way with them on the ground," Sutherland said. "There was no reason to be exotic. Just pound it on the ground and let’s get out of there."

"Our team ran the ball really well and mixed up the game plan," receiver Seth Morales said. "We had a phenomenal offensive line and they showed their prowess that game."

Indiana's last ditch effort, a 68-yard touchdown drive was answered, again by Lowe, whose 12-yard run gave Purdue a first-and-goal from the 1. Lowe punched into the end zone one play later for his fourth touchdown, highlighting a night he carried 38 times for 208 yards.

"Montrell Lowe, the game of his life," kicker Travis Dorsch said. "It was so fun to watch. It was the game of his life and we were celebrating from halftime forward. You never in football disrespect an opponent, but I feel like walking on the field for that game, we knew. We’d just laid a big egg in East Lansing. Look, if we don’t beat Indiana at home to go to the Rose Bowl, we’ll just all pack up and move to Crawfordsville or something."

Said Lowe: "It was a fun game. Any time you talk about a rivalry game, those are the ones you get up for no matter what the records are. If you put the Rose Bowl-clinching berth aside and just know you’re going up against your rival, that’s enough right there. When you add that it clinched it for us to go to the Rose Bowl, it makes it that much sweeter. You’re playing IU and you add the cherry on top when you go to the Rose Bowl."

Indiana's final two drives both ended with interceptions. Schweigert picked off Randle El at the goal line and shortly after, freshman offensive lineman Jason Eisele showered coach Joe Tiller with a cooler of ice water. Indiana got the ball one final time with 19 seconds left.

Jason Loerzel, whose role was limited during the 2000 season after tearing his ACL against the Hoosiers a year before, ripped down Indiana running back De'Wayne Hogan on consecutive plays, leaving IU two desperation heaves that mattered not.

"The year prior, the Indiana game was the game that I tore my ACL. And so anytime we played Indiana after that, it was very big for me," Loerzel said. "But being at home against Indiana, when they brought the lights in, you know, we didn't have lights back then, and to play them for that chance to go to the Rose Bowl. I think it just, it just amped it up even more. They weren't even physically close to us. And I believe it showed on the field."

On the game's final two plays, with the outcome already long decided, Randle El launched a 48-yard pass to the right side of the end zone that was batted down by Ben Smith. Waiting for the next one was Purdue junior Brady Doe.

"I have the panoramic picture of the end of that game. I still look at that picture. It was a pretty cool ending to the season," Doe said. "I got in there for mop up time. Antwaan Randle El throws up a prayer on the last play of the game. It didn’t matter, but I picked off the ball. I still have the ball at my parents’ house. I didn’t get to play as much as I wanted towards the end of the year, but it was pretty special for it to culminate like that."

Purdue 41, Indiana 13. Final.

Doe's teammate Tom Vaughan leapt on him in celebration. Niko Koutouvides and Jacques Reeves rushed to the end zone behind Vaughan and the rest of the team soon followed.

"The memory I have from that season was my roommate and best friend Brady Doe was on the field, he caught the interception right at the end in the north end zone," offensive lineman Kelly Kitchel said. "I sprinted down and he slid or whatever because it was the final play. I went down and grabbed him. We were so happy. We turn around and the field is completely full of people. We look in the stands and the stands looks completely full of people, too. How did that happen? It took us an hour, it felt like, to get through all the people."

Fans stormed the field at Ross-Ade Stadium three times during the 2000 season, this one being the final touch on a long-awaited Big Ten title fans hadn't experienced since 1966.

"We sent (Iowa) a bouquet of roses to thank them (for beating Northwestern). It is kind of fitting to come back to Ross-Ade Stadium. The fans had waited for so long for that," defensive coordinator Brock Spack said. "Law enforcement came in and said there’s going to be a lot of people here. It was kind of surreal, the scene. That was the third time that season that the stands emptied. The other two were Michigan and Ohio State. That is a night I will never forget. Winning that game is important obviously for all Purdue fans. It meant that we were going to the Rose Bowl and were champions of the Big Ten."

"Everything aligned right that year. Of all the times the field got rushed, what stood out is the IU game," cornerback Chris Clopton said. "My high school coach (Tom Padjen at Thornton Fractional South in Illinois), I was really close to him and his family. His father, we would call Grandpa Padj. He’s at this point between 75 and 80 years old. He jumps down on the field with the students and falls down. The students picked him up on their shoulders and rushed to the south end zone with him on their shoulders. I am in the crowd and I look at this old guy on the shoulders of a young student cheering."

"The roses come out after the Indiana game," safety Ben Smith said. "You couldn’t make it back to the locker room but nobody cared because we are so excited about it. Those are things that never go away. There’s plays in the game you won’t remember, but those three field stormings are things I will never forget."

For one magical November night in Ross-Ade Stadium that capped a season of highs and lows, Purdue University was unified from the administration on down.

"My favorite memory from my time at Purdue was standing in the end zone with a rose in my mouth looking at the sea of Purdue faithful, younger, older, professors, students, frat guys and just seeing everyone coming together crying and celebrating and giving high fives and looking at how happy our university was," Ayodele said. "It gives me chills talking about it knowing we accomplished something that was very rare."

"That was my 22nd birthday. And it was my last game at Ross-Ade. I had a pretty good party that night. Senior day, my birthday," center Chukky Okobi said. "Obviously, when you think about what that game means to the state of Indiana and the history, it was an incredible experience to look out there and hold that Big Ten trophy and knowing all the sacrifice and ups and downs since I got there. It had been so long since we went to the Rose Bowl and we got to feel like ourselves again as a student body, as alumni, as an athletic program. To me, I feel like that whole experience and beating Indiana in that fashion to seal our fate is perfect. To me, that’s the ultimate experience I hope any Purdue athlete can look at and say that’s who we are."

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue football 2000 Rose Bowl season, beating Indiana creates memories